Memory Crafting in Hong Kong

I've been thinking about different culture's memory techniques, and I realised that Chines Proverbs are an excellent example of a Memory System. Chinese Proverbs are either 成語 or 諺語, with my focus being on 成語. 諺語 are more like sayings, and are easier to understand without context. They also don't have as many rules. However, 成語 are ridiculously strange. 成語 have a few rules. Each one is 4 Characters long, and they are kooky. Some of them are simple, with two synonyms being mixed together. (Most Chinese Words are two Characters long, and will be so here unless specified. However, the intriguing ones are the story proverbs. 自相矛盾  ( zì xiāng máo dùn) Take the proverb 自相矛盾 ( zì xiāng máo dùn) . By itself it makes practically zero sense. 自相 ( zì xiāng)  means mutual, but 矛盾 ( máo dùn)  means pike and shield, which has no intrinsic meaning. What does Mutual Pike and Shield mean? Did you guess self-contradictory? Because that's it. How do you get Self-Contradictory f...

The first time I saw it the  first time i saw the book i  thought it was very boring just some random help you remember things, but when she(my mum tanya) described it to see i liked it a lot it was fun to imagine a two cat walking with the technique of shadow walking. i've read a few books i've read Head Kid, No Talking, Varjack Paw,  Ottline and The Yellow Cat, My secret Unicorn: Rising Star i kinda forgot if i've read any other book's.  since right now it's the holiday's i haven't been at my school  ._.  Some Questions from Tanya: How did it feel to listen to me tell the story around the room? it felt very cool i could feel varjak brush against my skin  How did it feel to tell the story to Jessica?  OK Can you remember any of the books you haven't read when you look at the photos?  Photo #1: b Is Letters from the lighthouse C Is head kid E Is wish  A Is  the umbrella mouse  D I...

What happened when I tried to use it the first time The first time I've been using it for my Wednesday school time table, The lessons seems to came up to my mind before I remember my visual alphabet and the sequence I made ignorer to remember my lessons. I want to know if any other people have the same experience of having it the wrong way round as I do.              I found it easier to remember the lessons  just by heart than using the complicated sequence to remind me. Thought it was suppose to be a easier way to stick the things for remembering straight in my mind. In the other hand ,I simply don't have any thing to remember for. no homework , no all -alone activity, only activities with my family and things like a Christmas buffet etc. What I think about the book so far I think the trick will work probably if I've practice it more and as people always say :practice makes perfect. so far, the book seems to be a tool for improving your me...

I really, really, really want to make a Memory walk of Chinese History. I will put my timeline as I grow it on this post, and edit it as I learn more fascinating things and facts about different eras and dynasties and events etc. Chinese History is already pretty gruesome and/or intense, so making memorable places isn't really a problem. The problem is pacing. Look at the picture below. Chinese History Timeline As you can see, dynasties can last a long time. The Zhou dynasty lasted 800 years if you count western and Eastern Zhou as the same dynasty (Which I do) while the Qin Dynasty lasted 15 years. This is especially troubling since a lot happened in the Qin Dynasty, and is one of the most important eras of political reform. Similarly, the Sui dynasty lasted 38 years and also was very productive. (This is somewhat of a trend in Chinese History. An incredibly long period of warfare, a short yet productive dynasty, then at least 400 years of one dynasty with relative peac...

The SJS English Room is now a Memory Palace. [Reminder, I'm a volunteer coach, not a teacher in this school, so I spend less time in the room than the students]. We started by assigning each of the 12 books to an arbitrary letter from A-L. I have also assigned a child to each letter-book-author. But there will be some fiddling around there.  Some kids don't want the book assigned to them (too sad, too hard) and also, there are 14 kids. I'll either have to move the kid or talk them into the book in the next few sessions.  During the second Readers Circle session there were only 10 of the 14 kids. (A session is about an hour and at least 15 min is taken with recording who has read what and who's ready to swap books). I asked them to talk about a character in their books and something that had happened and I took notes. Then I quizzed them using the 'In which book...' format and the kids who HADN'T read the book had to answer based on having listened t...

21 Dec 2019 People keep telling me stories about national character. Sam and I have a project to travel to every province of China and potter around for a few days, looking at some things, communicating in Putonghua, meeting strangers. Creating a narrative and sensory map of the country. With the new High Speed Rail and Multiple Entry Visas, it should be a cinch. Update: it's not a cinch. We have a bit of a Covid-19 epidemic and we can't go anywhere for quite some time. As I tell people about these plans, they (people from the Mainland) start telling me what types of characters I'm going to find there. (People from HK tell me I should just go to Taiwan). At first I thought it was like the Sydney-Melbourne issue. You know what they say. "If you put on a theatre show in Sydney, no one will go, and they'll tell you you are fabulous, if you put on a show in Melbourne, everyone will go, and they'll tell you it was rubbish". But I did find that there was ...

Obviously the place I need to start is my house. I want to do a little brain dump on some other possibilities. And I realise I have some overlap between memory walks through landscape and memory palaces enclosed in walls. What's the difference? [Ahh, I'm starting to remember. Is the difference between a discrete entity like a country vs a continuum like a timeline?] Sam has taken possession of the book so I can't look everything up right now. I would like to create memory spaces in some of the historical buildings in my area. They are very interesting in their own right. The Ping Shan area is built on Fung Shui principles. Many of the buildings have been preserved and the guest house, the ancestor shrine and the school all have multiple spaces with their own character and history, and they are open to be walked through. There are also some buildings within walking distance of my house. Many of the old Chinese buildings have wall paintings. Fruit trees, blossoms, ani...